With winter slowly coming to a close and spring break right around the corner, everyone could use a little bit of fun to brighten their day. A lively scavenger hunt will engage students and give them the opportunity to save some green in the store this March.
Tips for hosting a great scavenger hunt
- Short, long, difficult or easy, make a scavenger hunt that suits your students and campus. For example, if you have a large population of busy non-traditional students, consider making the hunt a little shorter and less involved so more people can participate.
- Pick stops all over campus. It will take teams a little longer to complete the tasks and make the event more competitive if it is spread out.
- Involve other departments around campus, but make sure you reach out to them first. This will keep the store in the departments' good graces as well as help you get to know them a little better.
- Don’t forget to include the store in some of the tasks. The energy competing students bring will inspire the staff and customers.
- Set a time limit on the hunt. That way if a team isn't able to complete all the tasks, they know when to return to the store.
How to set up the event
Scavenger hunts are very adaptable. You can hide an image all over campus and ask students to find all of the locations and take a picture in each. Or, simply list items they need to find and let them complete the list in any order they choose. Or, give riddle-like clues that they have to solve to get to the next stop. Base the type of scavenger hunt you choose on the amount of time and effort you can put into the event.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to set up an entertaining event.
- Select the type of scavenger hunt you will host.
- Ask your coworkers for clue or location suggestions.
- Send out an email to departmental chairs to see if their department would like to be included in the hunt and what would be a good task for their area. Probably all of the departments will not want to participate, but having even a few take part in the scavenger hunt will help promote the event.
- Create a list of locations, tasks or photos students will be challenged to find.
Examples of scavenger hunt tasks
- Get a high-five from four faculty members with photographic evidence.
- Take a team selfie with a campus shamrock.
- Have two team members take a picture with the school mascot.
- Check out a book by an Irish author from the library.
- Serenade a member of the bookstore staff with Oh, Danny Boy.
- Draw the national symbol of Ireland on an etch-a-sketch (or make it out of popsicle sticks).
- Select and arrange the best challenges to fit your campus.
- Establish the timeframe for the hunt and team size.
- Select the prizes the winning team and participants will receive.
Pro tip:
If you choose to make shirts for the event, give one to each participant. This will advertise the event around campus. Also, give all participants a coupon to use in the store.
Promoting the event
Approach advertising for this event just like any other sales event.
- Hang up and pass out flyers.
- Print posters and display them in high traffic locations.
- Send out emails.
- Take advantage of any campus-wide communication you can access.
- Share the event on all of your social media platforms, especially those students use the most.
- Create an event specific hashtag and make sure you are also including your campus hashtag as well.
- If you select an expensive prize for first place, include it in your advertising. However, if an expensive prize isn’t in your store’s budget, create a mystery grab bag of merchandise that also includes some candy and snack items. Display the mystery bags in a location where people can see them and wonder what’s inside.
Pro tip:
Share the post multiple times and ask other department or campus pages to share the post as well.
- Ask the student participants to tag the store’s social media accounts in the photos they post during the event. This will encourage them to post pictures so their friends can follow along and help increase your page reach.
In the marketing kit
Download the monthly marketing kit to receive:
- An editable flyer and poster
- An event shirt image
- A scavenger hunt clue sheet
- Social media image
If your store hosts a scavenger hunt we would love to hear from you and maybe feature your store on Foreword Online.
